I've been bbrowsing through the CSS3 drafts to see what things may come in
the future (deciding on whether I should wait for widespread CSS3 support
before changing the way my site is currently structured) and I noticed
some things which seem lacking in the draft regaurding the module: Borders.
Now this message may be taken as unwelcome, but as long as the
specification is still a work-in-progress it seems the right time (if not
the right place) to make note of such things. I am hoping that this
message will be seen and perhaps considered by whoever it is that
ultimately makes decisions.
The current draft ( http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-css3-border-20021107/ )
would allow for up to 16 images to be specified for a border. I realize
that it is impossible, and doesnt make sense to try, to make everyone
happy. However, by my count, the logical number of images to allow for is
not 16, but 24. That is, 3 per edge and 3 per corner.
Now, it may be possible to emulate this effect by setting negative-padding
on the contained content, placing clones of the background-image or
background-color within the images used by the border itself. This would
seem like a dirty hack, however, and may in some cases be impossible to
impliment (if, for example, the bottom-edge's position is variable, it
would be impossible to line up the background image with the border image)
Yes, its usefulness would be limited, similar layouts using tables are not
widespread, but they do exist. Because of their current difficulty, most
such layouts which I have seen resort to using a fixed-size. For these few
people, allowing 3 images to be specified for each corner would be a boon.
Come to think of it, I personally can recall more instances of seeing 3
images used for corners than instances of 3 images used for edges.
I guess I've made my argument for allowing the use of three images per
corner. Does anyone have an argument against?
Of course, if this is the wrong place to even mention such things, please
send me a private e-mail telling me who I should talk to.
---------------------
Vincent Starre
thebitman@comcast.net